Airport Manager Calls Work An 'Investment In Reliability'

In this era of GPS and glass cockpits, it might seem like a bit of a regression for an airport to install a legacy ILS, but that is not the opinion of airport managers at Idaho's Moscow-Pullman Regional Airport (KPUW). Airport Executive Director Tony Bean says that the installation is an "investment in reliability."

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports that the ILS installation in being completed with the help of an FAA AIP grant. Bean said that the current minimums at the airport are 375 feet and one mile, but the ILS will bring that down to 200 and a half.

Bean said that while a GPS approach competes with the landing minimus for an ILS approach, not all airplanes that use the airport have such a system installed. But nearly every airplane can shoot an ILS approach. “The regular, standard instrument landing system is tried and true technology from the ’50s and the ’60s,” he told the paper. “It is radio technology. It’s at most all commercial service airports. Almost every single one of them has an ILS.”

Bean said that installation of the ILS will significantly reduce the number of flight cancellations and delays caused by weather. The ILS will mean the airport will see the best landing minimums that it has ever had.

He added that the system will make the airport more competitive as it negotiates with a new airline that would offer direct flights to Denver.

FMI: Source report